The Worshipful Master.

Penhaligon might have waited till Doomsday to get into society . It has been said , that in Gippingswick you might live and die without you next door neighbour at No . 2 earing a jot . Probably , when you were buried , he would come to his window , rising from dinner , with his toothpick in his mouth , and remark casually that there must be some one dead at number one , as he saw a hearse

standing at the door . A well-known authoress has contrasted , very unfavourably to the South Folk , the difference of treatment strangers receive in East Anglia and Devonshire . On the east coast they have long since lost , as some think , all belief in the apostolic doctrine of being given to hospitality , knowing very well that the clays have long gone by when they might possibly entertain angels unawares . In the sweet western country it is different , and every

courtesy is shewn a stranger , and simply because he is a stranger . "Use hospitality one to another without grudging . As every man hath received the gift , even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God . " I read this in a very old book , just as I have penned the above lines , and it set me thinking whether we , in England , have not somehow forgotten this .

Where are the friendly gatherings of one ' s younger clays The pleasant dropping in at one ' s neighbour ' s and staying , with hearty welcome , to take pot luck . " Pot luck ! good heavens , " I think I hear one say . " Do you think- we care for such vulgar friendliness as that . " Alasin these days of making haste to be richof striving for a better place

, , in the social scale , we are nothing if we are' not pretentious . To give a grand party now and then , and outdo in lavish display anything your neighbour may attempt ; to strive for petty distinctions , to which , after all , you have no claim ; to give up the old-fashioned idea of contentment with the position in which Providence has placed you , and to toacly the rich and great , simply because they are rich and great . This is what England is coming to .

Eacn class is suspicious of that below and envious of that above it . The old feudal attachment of lord or squire and his tenantry , or master and servant is dying out . The servant apes the master , and serves him grudgingly and not often loyally , and the nobleman is openl y told he is only so by sufferance . The very existence of the House of Lords is threatened the moment its members courageously throw out any bill , which , if passed , would probably be

inimical to the well being of the commonwealth ; ancl the Crown , itself , is coolly informed by the press , that it is onl y the ornamental head of a virtual republic . But I am sadly digressing and led away , because old English manners and customs , old English loyalty to the Throne , ¦ and the ancient institutions of the country in Church ancl State , and above all , old English hospitalityare ding out and being cast away into the limbo of the pastas

, y , no longer necessary or desirable in the present . St . Mervin rectory is a very quaint two-storied house , on the brow of the hill , above the little town of St . Mervin ,. in Cornwall . There is a long verandah in front of it , and under the verandah the geraniums are trained against the wall , and grow to a height of six feet ancl more , flowering sometimes in the depth of -winter , so mild is the climate in this sheltered bit of East

Cornwall . There is a long bed of flowers outside , and beyond that a wide stretch of green sward , ancl then the little garden ends . It is quite shut in from the road—a sweet sequestered spot . It faces south , and looking across the lovely little land-locked harbour you see the ruins of St . Salvador ' s monastery on the opposite lull , and have just a peep of the English channelthe prospect seaward being somewhat circumscribed bthe

, y imposing Elizabethan Grammar School on the high ground , a little to the right , which shuts out the veiw . Looking over the garden wall , yon see below you the statel y battlemented tower of St . Mervin , with its crocketed pinnacles , the gilded fanes gleaming in the sun this lovely August day . The lofty